Continue To Collection

The Quinault Indian Nation’s Family Wellness Court provides a culturally relevant alternative to traditional Western court systems that focuses on healing rather than punishment. 100 of the 400 tribal courts in the country have wellness courts for adults, families and youth, providing substance use disorder support, mental health care, and other family support services.

Women and Children with Albinism in Uganda is a supportive shelter for women and children with albinism to build a community and be safe from stigma and violence. At the shelter, women are trained in a variety of skills, like tailoring and farming, to be able to sustain themselves and their families. Over the past decade, about 40 women and children across four regions have been positively impacted by the group.

The Unique Abilities Foundation Africa empowers people with disabilities by hosting beauty pageants. Participants are connected to a fellowship opportunity focused on cultural identity, addressing stigma, boosting self-confidence, and developing leadership skills. They then take what they learn back to their communities to continue destigmatizing the way people with disabilities are viewed.

The Surge Project and EmpowerED Birmingham uplift local youth by providing mentorships, tutoring, healthcare resources, workforce development programs and educational opportunities in various fields. In the program's 2023 pilot partnership with the National Training Institute for Healthcare technicians, 32 of the 40 participants graduated with a phlebotomy or EKG certification, and 19 of them were local high school students.

The National Home Grown School Feeding program provides food to schoolchildren to support their health and education while simultaneously supporting local cooks and farmers. During its operation, the program reached millions of students across 3o states and led to a 20% increase in primary school enrollment.

The Friends Advocacy for Mental Health Initiative (FAM) spreads awareness of the importance of mental health. It works to bring services like counseling and support groups to rural communities and schools. The Initiative’s Adolescents Save Haven Club hosts monthly sessions in secondary schools across the country, helping guide youth on their mental health journey, and has since helped over 300 students.

Working on Womanhood (WOW) hosts weekly, school-based meetings for Black and Hispanic girls in grades six to 12 to connect, work through personal problems and build a sense of self-awareness and confidence, as this population is largely underserved by mental health programs. Research shows that WOW participants experience decreased anxiety and depression and WOW counselors also report seeing less anger and fights among the participating students.

The Bay Area Urban Debate League serves students in low-income communities by providing debate opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t be able to access or afford. Teaching debate and participating in tournaments teach students valuable life skills like argumentation, critical thinking, research and logic. In 2023, the Bay Area Urban Debate League served 300 middle and high school students.

The military is leveraging video games and esports teams to drive recruitment and build community among service members. Military gaming projects like Goats & Glory and Air Force Gaming help service members connect with youth and provide a safe, relaxed space for soldiers to improve their mental health and connect with each other.

Turnup Jigawa is a leadership program that provides mentorship around advocacy and communication with the goal of training young people to engage with lawmakers and community stakeholders. Students go on to spearhead projects in their own communities, such as one participant’s awareness campaign around environmental hygiene and another’s initiative to provide college and career counseling to secondary students.

The Union Public School District is making efforts to encourage and support more students from underrepresented backgrounds to take advanced math courses. Instead of sticking with the traditional one-time placement test that determines a student’s math trajectory from sixth grade onward, Union schools offer in-school tutoring and longer class periods to support students who show promise in advanced math.

Fueled by Kids provides food for students who rely on school lunches to ensure they have food to eat during the weekends. Fueled by Kids curates bags of food that are easy for the students to prepare themselves and offers them at more than 20 schools, serving more than 1,000 students.

The GIRL-H program provides skill training and business assistance to youth from marginalized communities. Participants receive education and training in an area of their choosing and once they complete the training, they receive start-up capital to help them start their own businesses. The program has helped over 6,000 youth learn a new skill and start an entrepreneurial venture.

Rivers of Hope provides counseling and support services to youth who have experienced or witnessed violence at home. A primary goal of Rivers of Hope is to teach youth what healthy relationships look like and empower them to build and seek out healthy connections. The program started in 1991 and provides support and education to about 150 to 200 students each year, free of charge.

At Montpelier High School in Vermont, students can sign up for Healthy Masculinity, a course focused on exploring traditional ideas and pressures around masculinity and providing a space for boys to be open and vulnerable with their emotions. Enrolled students say the class has shifted their mindset and helped them learn to speak up about harmful stereotypes in their everyday lives.

The Becoming a Man (BAM) and Working on Womanhood (WOW) groups take place in schools, providing a space for youth to talk, rest and receive mentoring and counseling from adults who relate to their experiences. This programming helps improve attendance, grades and well-being while preventing and reducing violent crime rates. BAM and WOW programs exist nationwide in seven major cities, serving about 13,000 students annually. Research shows that those participating in BAM or WOW are 50% less likely to be arrested for violent crime and 19% more likely to graduate on time.

Working on Womanhood (WOW) works to build confidence, self-awareness, community and healthy coping mechanisms among Black and Latina girls in sixth to twelfth grade. WOW offers easily accessible group therapy in schools and is led by Black and Latinx social workers who can provide culturally relevant care to youth in need. WOW serves 350 students in one school district and surveys show that participants are less depressed and anxious and exhibit more self-confidence.

Kansas’ Mental Health Intervention Team Program pairs school districts with community health centers who bring therapists to the schools to give students better access to the mental health support they need. Between July 2022 and June 2023, more than 6,000 students participated in the program, and nearly half of participants showed improved behavior after receiving services, while 39 percent had improved attendance and 41 percent improved academically.

The Kupalinka theater school is a space for adult and children refugees from Belarus and Ukraine to gather to learn how to run a theater and perform for the community. Theater classes help keep the culture and native languages of their homelands alive. The theater also provides a safe space for fun, creativity and connection, helping refugees manage the stress and grief of fleeing home.

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Anita May Rosenstein campus provides an intergenerational community — and housing — for LGBTQ+ youth and seniors experiencing homelessness. The Center has 202 affordable housing units and it also offers several programs and services including counseling, support groups, job assistance, skills training and connections to health and mental health care, all while fostering community between the seniors and youth staying at the Center.

The Gonzales Youth Council, which allows young people to advise local government on issues that affect them, has inspired other youth councils to sprout up in neighboring communities. Youth commissioners participate in a paid summer fellowship to learn about city and school district processes, and the council has made several recommendations that have gone on to become ordinances, including fines for adults who facilitate underage drinking.

Cree youth in Calgary, Alberta, are expressing their views and experiences by writing, recording, and performing original music. The program, called Nikamo, is part of a collaboration between a local theater and a nonprofit focused on supporting youth mental health.

Afterschool programs like Opportunities for Deserving Children’s Rolling Away From Violence program are helping reduce rates of violent crimes amongst the area’s youth. The program offers a safe space for youth to play and engage with each other and community mentors. Opportunities for Deserving Children has also partnered with other local organizations to provide resources like mental health care to youth and others in the community who need it.

The Hacey Health Initiative’s Tombey project works to connect young people — especially young girls — with reliable, accurate information about sexual and reproductive rights and health (SRHR), as well as relevant sexual and reproductive health services. The Tombey Project offers an online SRHR course, a “sexiontary” full of SRHR terms and definitions and connections to youth-friendly counseling services. Since 2016, over 3,000 youth have taken the Tombey Project’s online course and it’s estimated that over 100,000 young people across the country have been impacted by the Tombey Project in some way.

Amongst an increased need for mental health care, Monadnock Family Services is offering group therapy to children to get them in for some level of care as staff shortages make offering individual therapy too difficult. The American Psychological Association found that group therapy is as effective as individual therapy for most conditions — as well as more efficient. Monadnock Family Services offers a variety of groups depending on a patient’s interests and identity, like groups for those who enjoy hiking to groups for members of the LGBTQ+ community.